Picture Post

Enjoy a glimpse into GSF, our community, and our home via photos. Here are a handful of pictures taken over the past couple weeks for a peek into our daily lives. Hopefully the captions will give you a context for each photo!

{GSF} Every Thursday there is a feeding program held at GSF for caretakers of young children (the elderly are invited once a month). Although Daniel and I are not directly involved in the feeding program, they gather right outside of our office. It's always a joy to see the babies being helped through the program! Above is a set of twins.

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{GSF} Daniel and I enjoy sharing an office and getting to know several of the other staff here at GSF who work in the next-door offices. We arrive at work just before 8am every morning and typically leave around 5:15pm. A GSF van picks us and a handful of other employees up every morning. We are thankful for the transport! 

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{GSF} Toddler time is a must. Here are Richard and Joseph, two of the sweetest little boys! The toddlers go on a daily walk and happen to pass right by our office. I love it.

{GSF} This little girl, Shakira, is so sweet on Daniel. She always finds her way to him as if they're old pals.

{GSF} Our newest GSF member, Pinto! THOSE CHEEKS. Please pray for Pinto as she battles tuberculosis. 

{Buwundo} Light of the World church! This church was planted by one of the GSF Ugandan employees in Buwundo, the village of GSF. It's about a ten minute walk from GSF and we enjoy worshiping God here every Sunday morning. Light of the World is currently having a campaign to raise money for a new roof.  

{Buwundo} Inside of the church

{Nyenga} This week we kicked off rainy season with three days of rain in a row! Rain is a great blessing for many reasons, one being WATER. Here are two boys taking advantage of a rain puddle in order to retrieve water for their families.

{Nyenga} I mentioned that it's been raining this week! About a 15-20 minute walk from our house is the Nyenga center where we go for simple grocery shopping. It's basically lots of small, individual shops. You'll see more below.

{Nyenga} Meat anyone?

{Nyenga} Fresh fruit and veggie stand

{Nyenga} Believe it or not, this place gets buzzing at night!

{Nyenga} A few of our neighbors! Sometimes children from outside of our compound come and watch me and Daniel. They must find some of our foreign antics to be quite interesting.

{Nyenga} Our block!

{Nyenga} The latrine and bathing area. Our latrine is the one with the white door. Daniel and I have noticed that everything we throw away gets trash-picked by our neighbor boys, whether it's a piece of floss or an empty can. We didn't think of this when we tossed out the (what we thought were) empty cans of paint from painting our house. Our neighbor boys took the liberty of using the rest of the paint to paint our latrine door! How nice of them =) They also painted other areas around the community. It's amazing how far trash goes. Lesson learned.

{Nyenga} This is inside of the bathing area. It's just a cement area where we go for taking bucket baths. I have to remind myself while I bathe that the extra dirt that finds it's way onto my loofah exfoliates, and the open top means an even tan. I'm still working on a way to console myself about the bugs..

{Nyenga} Latrines. Each latrine is shared by neighbors. We share our latrine with two other households in our community.

{Nyenga} The latrine in all it's glory. Daniel and I have agreed that THIS is the hardest part about living in the village. The flies, cockroaches, and stench can be quite challenging.

{Nyenga} Kimberly and mom worked hard to make me these beautiful curtains! They make me love our window even more.

{Nyenga} Daniel graciously helps me with chopping the veggies most evenings.

{Nyenga} I'm getting the hang of cooking on a charcoal stove. I have at least mastered getting it started with relative ease. I still have days where I just can't seem to get it going well such as last night - we didn't eat until 9! Eating so late is normal for our neighbors, so let's just say that I'm adapting to the culture =) Shout out to Mommom for the great pot holders! I use them every day. I know that green lid looks super random, but it's what I use to fan the fire.

{Nyenga} Sometimes I have to get a little creative in order to get everything cooked.

{Nyenga} It feels like Daniel and I are constantly rearranging in order to figure out what suits us best. We are working on utilizing our vertical space and bought the white shelf in Kampala the other day (on sale!). We bought the wardrobe holder in Kampala a few weeks earlier and love how it fits everything so well! It may not be beautiful, but we're thankful for it. Those yellow jerry cans are what we use for transporting and storing water.

{Nyenga} Our new bed! We love sleeping off the ground and having the additional storage space underneath. Another thanks to my sister Kimberly for making the bed spread.

 Thank you again for your continued prayers and support. Below are a few requests for the week:

1) Like I mentioned previously, please pray for Pinto as she's battling tuberculosis.

2) The land dispute over the land for the Fish house is moving on to court. This is not good, as it could take an indefinite amount of time to be resolved. Please pray that it would be a quick process! Also pray that God would be known and glorified through this conflict.

3) Praise God that Daniel's Ugandan work permit is making its way through the process. This is NOT a given. Most people (both at GSF and EMI) that are going through the same process as Daniel are having lots of trouble getting their work visa processed. We know it's because of your prayers! Thank you for praying and please continue to pray. It's not a done deal until it's picked up and paid for.

4) Praise God for the rain and water! We still do not have water in Nyenga, but we have heard that it will probably make it's way to us now that it's rainy season.